Imagine being a black lawyer in the late 1980’s for people on death row. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, is a captivating story about how he handles different cases for people on death row. Bryan Stevenson, a black lawyer who represents people on death row, opened a non profit law organization, Equal Justice Initiative, to help poor people in jail who couldn’t afford an attorney. As I read this story I was captivated by Bryan’s story and his clients stories. A lawyer's perspective of the judicial system is totally different than mine. I never realize how biased the jury could be until I read this book. It showed what is truly behind the walls of the justice system and jails and how racism convinces many people to think wrongly about the defendant. This book fit this challenge because I typically go for fiction books because I love how the story is made up and can be sad without bringing you down too much, unlike a nonfiction book about people on death row. I realized how unfair our justice system can be at times, especially when blacks didn’t have as much equality as they do now. Bryan Stevenson was from a poor family who lived in Delaware. He mentions that his grandparents had been slaves in Virginia. He talked about how his grandmother would pull him close to her to see if he felt her presence and if he said no, she would squeeze him harder. His grandfather had been murdered when Bryan was a teenagers. He family did manage to send Bryan to school and he eventually attended Eastern College than Harvard Law School. After finishing college he started representing people on death row then eventually co-owned his own law firm, Equal Justice Initiative. Unfairness in the judicial system is the biggest theme in this book. Just Mercy focuses on a client that Bryan Stevenson represented, Walter McMillian. He is a black man who was accused of rapping a white woman. He was never in trouble with the law and was respected by both white and black communities. McMillian had been having an affair with Karen Kelly, a white woman. This book follows Stevenson’s journey with his case. However, this shows how black men were more susceptible to being arrested and condemned to death row.“We can’t help people on death row without help from people like you.” Just Mercy made me feel so many emotions. From being happy to sad to angry with our country. I never imagined myself sitting down and reading a book based off of documents and real case files about people and their lives. Their stories were so heartbreaking, but it seemed as if Stevenson was trying to show us that we need to step up and take action in this problem just like Steve had told Bryan when he first started. Bryan Stevenson started out as a small nonprofit law organization with not much of anything, but even the littlest things make a big difference.
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AuthorSTenth grade students at Decorah High School share how they're reading outside of their own experiences and how it has changed them. Categories
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November 2022
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